Laptop/Notebook Which PPS?

[emjaiuk]

I hope I'm posting this in the right forum. I'm definately a beginner!
I'm about to purchase my first laptop PC, probably running XP Pro, and I'd like to use it for GPS. Although voice navingation would be ideal, we also spend a lot of time wandering around anywhere that looks attractive, so it would be nice to know where we are, and where we've been.

Any recomendations or suggestions as to hardware and sofware, or related PC sites would be very much appreciated.

Many Thanks


Malcolm

[Dave]

For complete portability but to the same performance of a PC a Pocket PC system would be best from a size point of view. However, there are lots of systems available for the PC, you can get a Serial or USB mouse, personally I would suggest the latter, otherwise if you go with a serial cable you need to use a PS/2 socket to give power to the GPS or have a separate cable in-car to power it from the accessory socket in-car.

Software wise, Infomap Navigator would be a good choice giving you pretty much what you'll need.

A few real down points about PC's in car is their screens aren't designed to be used in sunlight and you will find them wash out unless you can mount it low down below window level so you don't get reflections. The next point is, the mount you're going to use. If you don't have a passenger in the front of the car, then it's not too bad, but beware that any mounting system will take up space. The last thing really is Laptop's still aren't built for running on batteyr unless you go for a new centrino processor, so most laptops you'll be lucky to get a couple of hours use out of which means you then need to make sure that the laptop you have has a car charger that can work, or use one of these separate boxes that you can charge up in-house or plug into the accessory socket in-car and has a battery built in, and have a 3-pin plug socket on them allowing you to plug a laptop into. Again these can be bulky, so you need to weigh up the pro's and con's here. You can do some research before purchasing the laptop and save the bulkiness a bit by seeing if the manufacturer offers a car charger for their laptop. Most will if it's a good name, but beware they can charge anything up to £75 for spare mains or car chargers!

[emjaiuk]

Thanks Dave. Points noted re Laptop. Any recomedations for the reciever? I've heard that the Haicom recievers aren't the best, is that true?

Malcolm

[Dave]

I would tend to agree. The RoyalTek Sapphire is a good receiver, but it depends on whether you want USB or Serial, most GPS Receivers come as Serial.

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